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Cheryl Costello

As an experienced accounting manager, my suggestions to young adults pursuing the field today are to first, master your technical proficiency in the field by starting with strong fundamentals, then expand your talents in "softer" areas that will become more critical as you progress through a career in accounting.

Most likely, you will need to achieve your 4 year degree in accounting to establish technical proficiencies. In short, you need to know your debits and credits, financial statements, analytics, and more to DO your job as you start. After gaining 3 - 5 years of experience in the field, you may be ready to pursue your first position in management. At this time, it will be important that you have developed strong people skills and solid project management skills. MANAGING accounting is different from doing accounting and will require new skills.

For those who may be experiencing boredom early on, I cannot tell you if the field is correct for you, but I can tell you it is likely you will move onto more exciting and challenging positions than the entry-level ones described in the original questions. Think about where you believe you can be in 5 years or 10 years and ask yourself if you like that picture.